The New York Dance and Performance Awards, aka THE BESSIES, return after last year’s hiatus. The ceremony will take place on Monday October 18, 2010 at Symphony Space in Manhattan.

Dance work from the last two seasons will be honored, and there will be speeches and announcements from esteemed members of New York’s wide ranging dance world on the new and improved vision for the Bessie Awards going forward. All lovers of dance are invited! Admission is free. Tickets will be available soon on the Symphony Space site.

Established in 1983, the New York Dance and Performance Awards or Bessie Awards—in honor of the treasured dancer and teacher Bessie Schonberg— acknowledge outstanding creative work by independent artists in the fields of dance and related performance in New York City.

They honor exceptional choreography, performance, music composition, visual design and others areas of dance and performance. The awards are currently determined by the Bessie Awards Committee, which consists of artists, dance presenters, producers, journalists, critics and academics.

The awards were initiated by David White and originally produced by Dance Theater Workshop (DTW). In recent years have been co-administered and produced by DTW, Danspace Project, and The Joyce Theater.

The New York Dance and Performance Awards were suspended for 2008-09 season. During this hiatus, the producers began the work of re-imagining the awards to better meet the needs of both the dance/performance community and the public and to retain and enhance the value of the awards.